LHR British Airways Concorde Room

March 2022

The Concorde Room is a joke

Love the Heathrow Express which wisked us back from Paddington Station to Terminal 5 is just over 15 minutes. We stopped at the T5 Left Luggage to collect our bags.

And then upstairs to BA First security.

One of us had no problem. LOL.

Civilized BA First security.

Which funnels into the BA/One World First Lounge. You couldn't hide the extension cord, BA??

Down the hall is the Concorde Room, reserved to BA First passengers.

Once something special, it is definitely not so special anymore.

BA closed it for a year for "renovations" during Covid but other than some new furniture, I don't seen much difference.

The Terrace is as nice as ever with some new furniture...

But, they couldn't spend a little money to add power outlets, despite the nearby power? Seriously, it's 2022.

Dummies...

Ugh...

Concorde Dining, which looks exactly the same as before "renovations".

The communal table seating is new and a nice addition.

But that assumes that you can find anything on the menu remotely interesting. The Concorde Room menu... so 1970s, 1960s, 1950s.

Traditional British Sandwiches. Yeah, that really sounds appetizing.

Spiced Cauliflower Pie. Seriously?? And Mackerel?? The cheapest fish you can buy. And the BA Burger?? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

About the only thing that I figured they can't screw up.

I passed on food but DFW_CK threw caution to the wind and ordered a scone and the traditional sandwiches, none of which were edible with the scone being the consistency of a hockey puck.

After a couple of hours, mercifully it was time to leave to head out for the train ride to the C gates... BA's personal assistants and limo service not operational today. LOL.

Instagram videos...

BA Concorde Room Dining

Our review of BA Concorde Room Classic British Cuisine

Fortunately, our T5 arrival gate was close to the T5 Flight Connections lane, where we followed Fast Track.

And our first miserable-BA-employee encounter of the day. She admonished passengers for not using the electronic gates with a not so friendly "don't stand in line, go use the electrronic gates". Of course, the electronic gattes weren't working so we all got a "Please see BA Agent" which made her even more of a rhymes-with-witch. She barked at a few more people before escorting some hapless passenger to parts unknown. Fortunately, her colleague was more pleasant, checked our reservation and re-issued our Split Airport boarding passes on BA stock.

Not much traffic on the way to security.

And naturally, more than half the carry-ons, including mine were being kicked out for futher inspection.

Fifteen minutes later, we were good to go... shopping. LOL.

And then to the BA Lounges and the current temporary Concorde Room, the old Galleries First Terrace, which looked like this last summer.

OK, much better than the Beach.

With lots of beverages displayed.

... including the good stuff. But don't even think about touching or trying to pour a drink for yourself lest you risk getting your wrist slapped.

All OK in concept but apparently someone forgot that it gets warm out here, even warmerr when the sun shines. I would estimate the terrace temp in the sun was pushing 30C, but well north of 25C even in the shade. Contrast that with a pleasant 21/22 inside. Then there was the unaccpetable power outlet situation. These were the only two outlets in the entire terrace. I borrowed a charger for my phone but had to leave my laptop inside to charge. More BA intelligence.

Food options presumably the same as inside.

On the other hand, Mrs. SFO777 ate the entire Loaded Nachos with chili and was so full that she hardly ate anything on the 11 hour flight to LAX.

All in all, The Concorde Terrace was fine, except for the warm temps and lack of power outlets. Nice to see BA didn't cut back the liquor offerings as LPGS and Johnny Blue were readily available. And unlike with Lufthansa at FRA, at least there was a First Class Lounge for us to use. At around T-60, we headed out for our far distance B42. Planning for the worst, we stopped at Gordon Ramsay Plane Food... just in case.

January 2017

After cashing in our VAT refund, we headed back upstairs to BA's Concorde Room. Once an lovely lounge, this place is tired, shabby and sad, and badly in need of a extreme makeover.

Out on the terrace, airy and open with great views...

But some of the most shabby, dirty and downright disgusting furniture you will ever see.

Really?

Seriously??

Wow, simply wow.

Not a lot of power outlets so we were fortunate to find these.

We headed to the dining room for some lunch.

As bad as the decor and furniture were, the new menu looked pretty good.

The food was very good indeed much better than our last visit. But the biggest surprise was the outstanding service especially from the wonderful Slywia.